Vaughan urges young lions not to be fazed by cup's stars

Michael Vaughan has urged his young side to play with "no fear" if they are to emulate England's 1992 side and reach the latter stages of the World Cup.

Since that side lost to Pakistan in the final at Melbourne, no England side has reached the semi-finals of the World Cup and in the last two tournaments, England have even failed to qualify for the second stage. But despite entering the tournament with one of the most inexperienced squads of the major nations, the England captain believes that could work in their favour during the World Cup.

"A young team can sometimes be surprising and play with no fear," explained Vaughan. "I see that in some of the younger players that they don't fear many situations and that is what they're going to have to be like over the next few weeks.They can't be fearful of facing the world stars we're going to be coming up against, they have got to be really excited about the challenge ahead of them."

One of the main features of Vaughan's leadership since he took over the captaincy in 2003 has been to encourage the views of younger players when formulating plans and tactics and not just rely on the experienced players. While England will still depend on players with World Cup experience - particularly Vaughan, Andrew Flintoff, Paul Collingwood and Jimmy Anderson - they are also aware that experience has not been the key to success in previous tournaments.

"We have an environment where it is not necessarily the oldest player that comes up with the best idea," said Vaughan. "Young players do not have the experience of the guys who have played more games but sometimes fresh is best.

"The likes of myself, Freddie [Flintoff] and Paul Collingwood who have played in a few World Cups will be able to pass on a bit of knowledge, but we haven't had success in World Cups and what we try and accommodate in the team is to have an open voice. The young players in St Vincent certainly brought a lot to the team in the way they spoke."

For any team to succeed consistently over a lengthy period - as the winners of this tournament will have to do - they will have to rely on their major players. Australia's success in the previous tournament in 2003 was built around the stunning batting of the captain, Ricky Ponting, and the accurate bowling of Glenn McGrath.

If England are to reach that level, Vaughan knows his side will need similarly major performances from their big players - in particular Flintoff. "Andrew Flintoff is a crucial player in our one-day team. We're going to need his bowling, batting, fielding, charisma and character for us to go and have a good World Cup," said Vaughan.

England will make the long journey from Montego Bay, where they were required for the opening ceremony at the newly built stadium, to St Lucia tomorrow where they will play their three group games, starting with their opening match against New Zealand on Friday.